Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me, this is fan fiction, not for profit.

Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.

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Voices could be heard in the hallway, and then the doctor entered the room to check on Abby. He was complaining about armed men in a hospital. Abby turned to look at Connor.

"Becker's men are still here?" she asked.

"Well yeah," said Connor shifting tiredly from one foot to the other as he patted Sarah on the back, "the ARC registered an anomaly opening in the hospital last night."

"I thought you said it closed right away," said Abby "that there was no incursion."

"I did," answered Connor "but you know how Becker is… he assigned Hendriks and Stephenson to guard the doorway… just in case… if the anomaly reopens or some anomaly tourists try something."

Abby snorted at his last words. Since the anomalies had become public knowledge, some people had deliberately acted against the safety advice of Jenny and the public relations team. Instead of alerting the authorities, and avoiding the anomalies, these people actively sought out anomalies. Some people wanted pictures, some wanted prehistoric pets, and some… wanted to go exploring.

"Really," she said "I don't understand some people."

"But Abby," said Connor "I think some of them are supposed to go through, like that artist last month… you remember… Leonard… from Ipswich… he went back to renaissance Italy."

"Yeah Connor," said Abby knowing how excited Connor had been when his new dating and location calculator had showed a reading for 1473 Florence Italy. And when a young man had bumped into him, shoving past Connor in his headlong rush to dive through the glowing ball of fractured light, Connor had been worried. The young man might change something, but if Leonard changed anything they couldn't tell.

"Uhh, hmmm," coughed the doctor, "right now, there are more important things to talk about than anomalies. How are you feeling young lady?"

Abby looked at the doctor. "There are two things I want to know," she said "When can I start nursing my baby and when can we go home?"

-x-x-x-x-x-x

Knowing that it was safe for her to start nursing little Sarah had made Abby very happy. It almost made her not even mind when the doctor had insisted on keeping her in the hospital for another two days observation.

-x-x-x-x-x-x

Their first visitors arrived at nine.

Jenny peaked in the doorway. "Everybody decent?" she asked. Taking the muffled reply to be a positive response, she stepped inside. Seeing only Abby sitting in the bed holding Sarah, she asked "Where's Connor? I thought he was here too."

"Sarah spit up on Connor," explained Abby "he's in the lavatory switching his shirt around so she won't have her face in a wet spot when he holds her."

"How are you feeling?" asked Jenny as she leaned in to see the tiny infant Abby was holding. "Ooh!" The two women were soon happily counting fingers and toes.

Connor stepped back into the room in time to hear Abby say "She's got her Daddy's eyes."

"Where's Michael and little Jamie," he asked Jenny.

Jenny frowned. "That harridan at the front desk said little children were not allowed to visit, so Michael took Jamie to the park while I'm here," she responded "and I can't stay long either… only one person at a time and not more than twenty minutes."

"What?" asked Abby in dismay, but at that moment the door opened as Jess and Mrs. Lester entered the room.

"Well, that nurse told me only one person at a time," Jenny repeated in surprise.

Mrs. Lester looked at her coolly and replied "I explained to her that sometimes a rule needs to be broken."

Abby smirked. Apparently the bossy nurse from last night had met her match in Mrs. Lester.

-x-x-x-x-x-x

The women were soon all cooing over little Sarah. Jenny was saying something about wanting to introduce her son to the baby when they got out of the hospital.

Connor leaned against the wall with his eyes shut. He appeared to be sleeping standing up, but when there was a lull in the conversation he asked Jess a question.

"Jess," asked Connor "who was on duty last night? What kind of readings did we get from the anomaly?"

She turned her head away from the baby in Abby's arms to look at him.

"Beth was on last night," she said "but we didn't get any readings. The anomaly opened and then closed before we got a team here."

"Another one?"

-x-x-x-x-x-x

Mrs. Lester turned to look at Connor. "Another one what?" she asked.

"Another blinker," he answered "or at least that's what I call the anomalies that open and close so quick we can't get any readings on them. It's just… they seem to be occurring more frequently than the longer lasting anomalies…"

"Perhaps it's just that now we are finding them," replied Mrs. Lester "and before we didn't."

"Well, maybe" Connor said "but I've only seen blinkers since New Dawn... never before... and..."

Mrs. Lester narrowed her eyes to look at Connor. "And what?"

"We haven't seen any anomalies open to the future since New Dawn," said Connor "I understand why the race track anomaly closed after New Dawn… we stopped Matt's future from ever being a possibility, but… no future anomalies…it just doesn't make sense."

"What do you mean?" asked Jess.

"Helen," replied Connor "she's come back and forth through time, bringing all sorts of future kit… serious stuff too… the neural implants on those predators Leek had… the clones…the anomaly opening device and the body camouflage… Where's she getting it from? And why can't we ever find the future technology?"

"The future changes every day, with every decision we make," she replied. "Our job is to keep the world safe, send people and creatures back where they belong, lock the anomalies." She took a breath and then asked "If we did find an anomaly to the future, we wouldn't use it. We're not Helen right?"

Connor chuckled a bit at that comment. "Right," he agreed "guess we'll have to make our own future kit."

Mrs. Lester smiled brightly, her mask firmly in place. She knew Connor was going to continue developing new technology. And if she knew of any open anomalies to the future, or had the means to open an anomaly to the future, she wasn't telling.

-x-x-x-x-x-x

Little Sarah started squirming then. She wanted to be fed again. The ladies left, and Connor and Abby were alone with Sarah. When the baby was done feeding, Abby handed the little girl to Connor. He paced back and forth, patting Sarah on the back. Abby watched as the baby spit up again, leaving a trail of wetness across Connor's shoulder.

As he wrapped the baby in the little pink blanket and then carefully laid her back in Abby's arms, Abby said "Connor, you should go home… take a shower and have a lie down… you're exhausted."

"But…" Connor pointed to the adjacent bed "I can sleep there."

"Yeah," Abby agreed "but you need clean clothes and a shave before you go pick up your Mum at the train station. We'll be fine, go on now." And truthfully, Abby wanted a little one on one time with her daughter.

-x-x-x-x-x-x

Twenty minutes later, the door swung open again. Abby looked up from watching Sarah sleep to see a huge vase of flowers enter the room. Not much of the person carrying the flowers could be seen, just a pair of legs in white slacks. As the vase was lowered to the table next to the visitor's chair, Caroline straightened up.

"I hope you don't mind," she said to Abby "I'll leave if you do."

"What are you doing here?" asked Abby. She and Connor hadn't seen the woman since Stephen's funeral. And although Abby knew that Becker kept Caroline's name on the security watch list, she hadn't done anything out of line that Abby was aware of.

"I work in the administration department here," replied Caroline "heard you and Connor had a baby. May I see?"

She was waiting, Abby realized. Caroline hadn't stepped forward, and she looked nervous. Almost as if she expected Abby to get out of the bed and start a fight with her.

Abby had fought with the woman once… supposedly over Rex, but they both knew who it was really about. Abby had felt threatened by the woman. Abby thought she was losing Connor… he seemed to have given up on flirting with her, he seemed happy to be just friends, co-workers, flat mates. And that was when Abby first realized that she wanted more from Connor.